OUR VIEW: Sustaining Fall River's crime decline

Wednesday

Jan 15, 2014 at 5:54 PMJan 15, 2014 at 8:42 PM

While a spate of violent incidents in the news recently may contribute to a perception that Fall River is a dangerous place and the city's placement on various lists of the nation's most dangerous cities bolster that reputation, crime statistics from the past three years paint a brighter picture that should reassure residents. The numbers announced at a press conference Tuesday indicate that violent crime, especially shootings, have significantly decreased since 2011.

Herald News Editorial Board

While a spate of violent incidents in the news recently may contribute to a perception that Fall River is a dangerous place and the city's placement on various lists of the nation's most dangerous cities bolster that reputation, crime statistics from the past three years paint a brighter picture that should reassure residents. The numbers announced at a press conference Tuesday indicate that violent crime, especially shootings, have significantly decreased since 2011.

As Mayor Will Flanagan said, "It's important to get out the truth, to get out the statistics, to change the negative tone that people have been talking about in our community." He's right. It is important for the community conversation to be grounded in facts. While perceptions do, in many ways, define reality, the numbers show that Fall River is actually a safer place than it was just a few years ago.

While homicide represents a very small piece of the crime picture, murder rates and shootings do tend to influence perceptions the most. The city had gone 15 months without a homicide until the Jan. 5 murder at Ship's Cove Apartments. According to Herald News archives, 2013 was the first year since 2000 that Fall River had no homicides in a calendar year. Shootings have fallen by more than 60 percent since 2011.

Since 2008, Fall River's homicide rate has been at the lower end, compared to area cities of similar size. On the other end of crime spectrum, home and business robberies, along with breaking and entering complaints, have also seen a big drop over two years. That's not to say that the city is safe. It does, however, mean that the city is getting safer than it had the past few years on many fronts.

The three main speakers at Tuesday's press conference — Flanagan, Police Chief Daniel Racine and District Attorney Sam Sutter — credited additional resources, more police officers, interagency collaboration, new technologies such as the Shotspotter gunshot detection system and tough-on-gun-crime prosecution strategies. A new crime mapping program also holds great promise for identifying problem spots and deploying resources to address the problems.

Fall River police deserve a big share of the credit for the drop in crime, thanks to effective community policing techniques that have clearly been paying off. Also deserving of credit are the elected officials who have made public safety a priority when it comes to budgeting sufficient resources to allow for stronger police staffing.

The ranks of police officers, decimated in 2009 budget cuts, have been steadily restored under the Flanagan administration. Part of the increased community policing boost has been made possible through the infusion of $1.25 million in federal matching grant funds through the COPS program, with the city also kicking in more than $1.143 million over the three years, along with state grants.

Another factor keeping crime down may be a stronger sense of community, with the city's vibrant neighborhood groups keeping an eye on their neighborhoods and serving as a deterrent, and the crackdown on nuisance properties taking a bite out of crime. However, there's no silver bullet when it comes to reducing violence.

A safer city can only be sustained through continued, effective, sufficient policing resources, and vigilant residents who keep an eye on neighborhoods and serve as good partners with the police in crime prevention.

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